I have lost my OS ways, help!

bellaquidsin

I have an ice cream problem too. What is it about that stuff? I know it's full of rubbish, but I love it. I too try not to have it in the house but on Sunday I have the family coming. One pudding is to be blackberry and apple pie and custard - very OS, but I like to do a second pud/alternative and this time it's to be meringue nests because they will keep if not eaten, strawberries and the dreaded ice cream, which would also keep if not eaten, but not with me around.


Yesterday was a total NSD with a frugal evening meal - rissoles made from the last of Sunday's beef.


A friend came in the afternoon but all that cost me was two cups of tea as she is on a diet too.


I'm not going to add in the items I ordered last night from Create and Craft as I don't see that money going, I just know that when my bank balance drops below a certain level I stop spending as it's my safety net in case DH dies first, in place to give me funds I can get my hands on quickly until the finances get sorted. Not morbid, just sensible. The trouble is, I can spend that fund down much more quickly than I can build it up as there's only peanuts going in to it. However I know that at the moment my craft stuff can be afforded and I just think of all the cards I can make and sell to build the funds up again.


Today? A very OS baking morning to do all we'll need for Sunday and then a visit to my 94 year old aunt. She can teach us all some OS ways that's for sure.


Bella.

Caterina

Hello Spendless! Please please please have mercy on my poor aging memory and remind me of our meeting! I am racking my brains, sorry for not remembering!

Bella with all that food preparation for your family and visitors it must be hard sticking to a diet! I need to find a stickable diet myself as the weight I lost in past years is really creeping back on fast. Not a healthy nor an OS thing to let it happen.

Caterina

Hello Chirpycheap, I am sorry to hear about your husband's ill health and job loss. I hope you will find support here and throughout the OS forum. There are a lot of very inspiring threads that can help with budgeting, reducing food and other living costs etc.

Here we come to terms with the vagaries of our OS ways, all of us posting in this thread have had ups and downs in our spending but are hoping to do our best to return to OS ways.

I find it helpful to post my OS plans for each day first thing in the morning, others just post their thoughts and ideas. I hope you will find it useful.

Spendless

Caterina wrote: »

Hello Spendless! Please please please have mercy on my poor aging memory and remind me of our meeting! I am racking my brains, sorry for not remembering!

H, ha, We went to York for an OS meeting with 2 other mse members, that I don't think post anymore, though I'm still in touch with one of them.

I can't quite remember the year, but *think* it may have been around 2005.

jlhmd666

ginnyknit wrote: »

Just made the best chicken biryani ever, have been practising as Oh gets to sample a lot made my the talented wives of his Asian cricket friends - however Oh is sleeping deeply and I darent wake him as we have had Dgs for most of 2 days. It cost pennies to make and all out of things I had in. Nsd today :j

Would you mind sharing your recipe please Ginny Good luck with your hospital appointment.

I'm aiming for a NSD today. OH has taken a packed lunch so if he sticks to plan we can do it

lynsayjane

Morning all,

No ice cream issues here other than the fact I plain can't have it! If you want to stop eating it I can highly recommend the Lactose Intolerant Diet
It's not something I ate often but by gum it's a pain at times now! Went on a date to the beach, he suggested ice cream and I wanted to cry, said yes and luckily the place we went had a reasonable choice of sorbet which is my substitute now.
This also works if you ahev any cheese or McDs milkshake addictions.

Been lurking on here but afraid I'm not managing much in the OS style to post at the minute, I have so many good intentions then they get forgotten. I've generally been good food shopping wise and when I make anything the leftovers go in the freezer so not had huge spends. My issue at the moment is housework which frankly I've not done for a couple of weeks other than laundry (I was away for five days during that time though). This week is a rather busy one but next week I'm going to start doing some wee projects of cleaning and clearing out to try and get the house almost presentable.

Welcome along all the newbies, Pink hope for good news on the job front for OH.
Caterina please don't beat yourself up about your splurge, I've been dieting and weight watching since I was about 14 (wish I could say that was an exageration but no, I was at a dietician at the doctor that far back). One thing I've learned is that if you keep telling your body/mind no no no no no all the time then on occasions it just screams back YES and you go crazy. One of the best times I had diet wise was 7 years ago when I was actually on this site to save money and get out of debt. I was meal planning and doing a shop weekly. My meal plan revolved more around money saving than health and plenty veg but on a Sunday when I did my shop I'd buy myself my weekly treat (a big bag of potato chip crisps or a snickers) and I'd sit and eat the whole thing while watching 24 or some other thing on the tv. I found that by knowing I was getting that on Sunday I was less tempted to slip up through the week. Can I make a suggestion that you choose a day (maybe after your fish and chip night) and buy one of those little pots of BnJ like you get at the cinema (sure they are £1ish in A5da) and that's your weekly ice cream fix?

LJ
x

Aril

Hello! I used to post here quite regularly once upon a time but have become an not so frequent lurker over the last few months:o Anyway this looks a mighty fine thread to peep into:j I am still fairly OS but could probably do with a good hefty shove to tighten up a bit.
Look forward to reading!
Arilx

Pinkstar206

Hello all. Hope everyone is having a good day.

Have had a reasonably good-ish OS day today (for me)! Had to go into town to get school trousers son but my mother came along and kindly met the costs - had to repay in receiving criticism as usual though. Only paid for one small treat for DS who has been managing to stay in his bed for most of the night recently which is a great improvement... Also parking fees, which are always a pain in town. I always intend to park further out and walk in but we were running late so had to go in shopping centre instead.

I did forget to get crusty bread to go with pasta for dinner but have something in the freezer I could use so may go with that. Have to go and collect OH from work soon and take laptop in to repair on the way - hope they can fix it, seems to have packed up altogether :eek: Will try to make some OS plans for tomorrow, seems a good idea to post them in advance if I can be that organised! I have also put my first item on sale on ebay this week and tried some cleaning with bicarb of soda. Must add some more ebay items as next project.

Hope everyone has a good evening. PS

fairy3

Hello fellow OSers - today has sort of gone to plan - bit of a spend but planned as had to go to the dentist for a check up, ouch (that was for the bill but can claim half back from hospital fund) so thought would combine with a minor shop for bits and pieces in town. As I can't drive due to foot had the pleasure of using public transport which I forgot on the way back and had to carry 4 bags of shopping which got heavier and cut my fingers in half.

So part of the OS plan was to sell back a couple of Egyptian notes to the post office for princely sum of £7.07 which was fine as they had been taking up space in my purse doing nowt.
Deposit a cheque from the inland revenue for £116.40 for overpayment of tax last year - no idea why they did that but not complaining - anyone else thinking of claiming? I did last year and received a refund for previous 5 years.

Bought some essential stuff and had a trip to jack fult*ns where they had 6 of the little pots of icecream for a pound - I resisted but sugar is the devils work and a planned mini binge is a good idea.

Pork chops have been marinating all day so just need cooking tonight with YS mushroom stirfry and noodles. My splurge was in the CS with a £10 spend on a lovely dress by monsoon, handbag by fiorelli and a glass germinator by A.vogel for sprouting seeds which is selling for £7.99 I paid £1.50 so got a bargain.
For school uniforms Sainsbugs have their 25% sale on clothes on at the moment and one poster suggested doing a tiny spend and see if there was a till split for the next shop which could be used against the clothing purchase (hope that makes sense?)
Thanks to all of the contributors on the thread am finding it really motivating.

F xx

Caterina

Good evening,

A warm welcome to Aril, I remember reading your posts a long time ago, isn't it amazing how many old timers' names are popping up on this thread, we are the lost sheep returning to the fold!

Spendless of course! How could I forget, silly me. I also remember Fran, with whom I have remained in touch, we visited each other a couple of times. We have not met for a long time now but once in a while I hear from her. I organise London meet ups but would love to attend one somewhere else, been to Bristol a couple of times, once to Blackpool and once to Birmingham. I love meeting other OSers in person, how lovely if someone organised a big national meet!

Lynsayjane thank you for your wise words. I am trying to be sensible about eating and am happy to report a sugar free day today!

This morning after bootcamp I went to marks and found the YS bonanza, so stocked up on a bit of veg, tomatoes and mushrooms. Also they had half price blocks of really good mature cheddar so I got that too.

No work after all, as my friend had a sudden birth emergency (she attends mothers in childbirth, she is a doula), so her accounts have to wait. Instead,DS and I cleared the front garden and cut the hedge, lovely day for it, in the sunshine. The old Indian lady two doors down came to say hi and told me that she had some curry for us. She even made us fresh chapatti! Tomorrow I shall pick some plums in the allotment for her, to return her kindness. So, dinner was lentil curry, chapatti, leftover quinoa stew and YS salad and coleslaw. Very OS!

Good night.